The present invention relates to remotely waking up customer premises equipment to cause the latter to initiate communication with a network-based service system.
A number of applications are known of the general concept by which a party who wishes to communicate with another, first makes a telephone call to activate or xe2x80x9cwakeupxe2x80x9d communications apparatus, the initiating party then terminating its call to permit the latter apparatus to establish the required inter-party communication.
One application of this concept is where the initiating party calls a third-party service system which recognises the caller without picking up the call and interprets the call as a request to connect that party to a particular telephone number corresponding to the party with which the initiating party wishes to communicate. The third-party service system then sets up a call between the initiating party and the party at the particular telephone number. Generally, the motivation for such systems is the cost differential between outbound and inbound calls to the initiating party, such differentials being most conspicuous in relation to international calls. Systems of this type may infringe local telecommunication regulations in some countries, the regulations having been implemented to stop the unpaid use of telephone-network resources which arises from the initial call not being picked up (uncompleted calls are not paid for in most telephone networks).
Another example of use of a wakeup call to prompt communication initiation, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,911 in relation to the remote reading of a utility meter by the utility company. The meter is connected to a normal telephone line and the utility company can wake up the meter by making a call to that line and allowing it to ring 16 times; the meter recognises such a call as an instruction to send a meter reading to the utility company and this it does by calling back the utility company at a predetermined time and transmitting the required data. Again, the motivation to have the meter call back rather than pick up the initial wakeup call is economicxe2x80x94in the United States outbound calls from domestic premises are generally free of charge whereas the utility company would pay for a completed call to the domestic premises. An alternative way of triggering the meter to call back is also described in situations where a call has already been established between the customer and utility company personnelxe2x80x94in this case, and assuming that the meter is connected to the same line as the customer telephone handset, the utility company personnel can wake up the meter by sending a predetermined tone signal down the open telephone line; again, the meter is arranged to call back the utility company with the required data.
It is also known to remotely wakeup a computer to initiate the set up of IP-based (Internet Protocol based) communication with it. In this case, the computer is connected to a dedicated telephone line via a modem. A user wishing to wake up the computer calls the computer and upon the latter answering, hangs up. The computer now calls a local internet access provider (IAP) and establishes a connection to the Internet. Next, the computer sends an e-mail to the user at a fixed IP address; this e-mail will contain the current IP address dynamically assigned to the computer by the IAP thereby enabling the user to send messages back to the computer. In a refinement, caller ID information is provided to the computer with the initial call and this information is used to determine which of several fixed IP addresses is called back by the computer.
However, none of the foregoing examples provides a way of remotely waking up customer premises equipment to cause it to initiate communication with a network-based service system which is both inexpensive and minimises inconvenience. In particular, none of the foregoing examples satisfactorily handles the conflict between having the equipment use the same line as other apparatus (such as a telephone handset) whilst minimising annoyance due false pick up by the equipment.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus providing a better compromise between cost and convenience.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method of initiating communication between a service system connected to an IP network at a known address, and customer-premises equipment connected to a telephone line to which other customer-premises apparatus may also be connected, the telephone line being part of a telephone system through which said equipment can connect to a network access point to access said IP network with an address that is assigned each time connection to the network is established; said method comprising the steps of:
(a)xe2x80x94initiating, from the service system, the placing of a wakeup call to said telephone line, the wakeup call being a ringing telephone call with particular characteristics;
(b)xe2x80x94monitoring said telephone line at the customer-premises equipment and upon detecting a said wakeup call by its particular characteristics, accessing said IP network from the equipment by placing a telephone call through telephone system to the network access point and establishing an IP link between the equipment and said network access point;
(c)xe2x80x94establishing contact from the customer premises equipment over the IP network with the service system at said known address; and
(d)xe2x80x94passing from the customer-premises equipment to the service system, the current network address of said equipment whereby the equipment and service system, knowing each others network addresses, can inter-communicate.
Advantageously, the wakeup call is identified by means of a characteristic caller ID or distinctive ring, or, in the event that the call is picked up, by rapid call termination, by an in-band signal, or by a predetermined period of silence. All of these call characteristics permit the customer premises equipment to recognise wakeup calls on a line also receiving normal telephone calls.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of initiating communication between a service system connected to an IP network at a known address, and customer-premises equipment connected to a telephone line to which other customer-premises apparatus may also be connected, the telephone line being part of a telephone system through which said equipment can connect to a network access point to access said IP network with an address that is assigned each time connection to the network is established; said method comprising the steps of:
(a)xe2x80x94initiating, from the service system, the placing of a wakeup call passing from said network access point to said telephone line, the wakeup call being a ringing telephone call with particular characteristics;
(b)xe2x80x94monitoring said telephone line at the customer-premises equipment and upon detecting a said wakeup call by its said particular characteristics, accessing said IP network from the equipment by using the connection established by said wakeup call to set up an IP link through the telephone system between the equipment and said network access point;
(c)xe2x80x94establishing contact from the customer premises equipment over the IP network with the service system at said known address; and
(d)xe2x80x94passing from the customer-premises equipment to the service system, the current network address of said equipment whereby the equipment and service system, knowing each others network addresses, can inter-communicate.
Again, the wakeup call can be identified by means of a characteristic caller ID or distinctive ring, or, in the event that the call is picked up, by an in-band signal, or by a predetermined period of silence.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of initiating communication between a service system connected to an IP network at a known address, and customer-premises equipment connected to a telephone line to which other customer-premises apparatus may also be connected, the telephone line being part of a telephone system through which said equipment can connect to a network access point to access said IP network with an address that is assigned each time connection to the network is established; said method comprising the steps of:
(a)xe2x80x94initiating, from the service system, the sending of a wake-up indicator over said telephone line to the customer-premises equipment, the wakeup indicator being transmitted independently of a ringing telephone call;
(b)xe2x80x94monitoring said telephone line at the customer-premises equipment and upon detecting said wake-up indicator, accessing said IP network from the equipment by placing a telephone call through telephone system to the network access point and establishing an IP link between the equipment and said network access point;
(c)xe2x80x94establishing contact from the customer premises equipment over the IP network with the service system at said known address; and
(d)xe2x80x94passing from the customer-premises equipment to the service system, the current network address of said equipment whereby the equipment and service system, knowing each others network addresses, can inter-communicate.
The wakeup indicator is, for example, a VMWI-based indicator.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of initiating communication between a service system connected to an IP network at a known address, and customer-premises equipment connected to a telephone line to which other customer-premises apparatus may also be connected, the telephone line being part of a telephone system through which said equipment can connect to a network access point to access said IP network with an address that is assigned each time connection to the network is established; said method comprising the steps of:
(a)xe2x80x94initiating, from the service system, the sending of a wake-up indicator over a predetermined communications channel independent of said telephone line to the customer-premises equipment;
(b)xe2x80x94monitoring said predetermined channel at the customer-premises equipment and upon detecting said wake-up indicator, accessing said IP network from the equipment by placing a telephone call through telephone system to the network access point and establishing an IP link between the equipment and said network access point;
(c)xe2x80x94establishing contact from the customer premises equipment over the IP network with the service system at said known address; and
(d)xe2x80x94passing from the customer-premises equipment to the service system, the current network address of said equipment whereby the equipment and service system, knowing each others network addresses, can inter-communicate.
The predetermined communications channel is, for example, a radio paging channel.
All of the foregoing methods of the invention can advantageously be used in initiating communication over an IP network between a first end system and a second end system using the services of an intermediary service system connected to the network at a known address, the second of said end systems being the customer-premises equipment referred to in the preceding paragraphs. More particularly, communication between the end systems is initiated by the steps of:
(a)xe2x80x94passing from the first end system, over the network, to said intermediary system, a network address through which the first end system can be contacted,
(b)xe2x80x94establishing contact between the intermediary system and the second end system over the network according to one of the foregoing methods of the invention; and
(c)xe2x80x94passing from the intermediary system, over the network, to one said end system, the network address of the other said end system, and passing the network address of said one end system, from said one end system or said intermediary system to the said other end system whereby the end systems, knowing each others network addresses, can inter-communicate.